Problem Statement

The Office of Student Life is having trouble engaging University of Michigan-Dearborn students and organizations to be more engaged with the platform. Our team's goal was to improve the accessibility and increase effective usage of VictorsLink. As a result, our team conducted various research methodologies to discover key insights and recommendations.

Discovery

After our team first created a research plan, we created an Interaction Map of the VictorsLink website to better understand the tool the users were using.

Next, our team conducted some user interviews. Utilizing a mini-screener form, our team was able to schedule and conduct three user interviews through Zoom.  Our team then did qualitative analysis and affinity mapping to aggregate and conceptualize our team's findings from the user interviews.

Then our team conducted a survey. Our team created a survey through Qualtrics and was able to distribute the survey through targeted e-mail groups of the University of Michigan-Dearborn. Our team was then able to conduct quantitative analysis including cross-table analysis and some minor qualitative analysis for open-ended survey questions. 

Our team also conducted a heuristic evaluation. Each team member evaluated and analyzed the entire VictorsLink application independently, with each member coding their findings utilizing Nielson's 10 heuristic usability checklist. Our team then came together and aggregated our findings.

Lastly, our team then conducted a usability test. Our team was able to conduct 6 usability tests where we instructed users to perform various tasks on VictorsLink's mobile version. Our team was able to conduct these usability tests through Zoom with the participant with their consent sharing their mobile screen on Zoom. Our team's tasks during the usability test were:

1. 1: Find a social event in the next week to learn more about it on VictorsLinks.
2. 2: Find the "Human-Factors Engineering" Club on VictorsLink.
3. 3: Find news articles from the Office of Student Life.
4. 4: Find appropriate help/support and/or documentation to help find more information to assist you.

Our team then was able to measure and analyze key metrics during each task during the usability test.

Our team then was also able to analyze qualitatively post-task and post-test questions.

Key Insights

Our team was able to discover a large amount of insights and recommendations as after each research method, our team created a report with our findings and recommendations. Some of our key findings include: 

1. 1: VictorsLink (VL)  admin should give organization leaders more autonomy with event posting on the site, as well as make member notifications a prominent feature of VL.
2. 2: The VictorsLink website needs to provide all users with easy access to clear Help and Support resources with FAQ’s and How To’s.
3. 3: The VictorsLink mobile site should have interface improvements that address excessive scrolling, search and filtering difficulties, and a lack of a Help button and accessibility features.

Recommendations

Our team's recommendations respective to the insight are:

1: The Office of Student Life should automatically approve (or streamline the process for approval) events that are intended to be posted to VictorsLink by organization leaders.

2: Have a clear and dedicated Help/Support page that is easily accessible within the left side menu where most users expect it to be. Add accessibility options if possible.

3a: Improve the search function and filters interface by making it more intuitive and consistent with the desktop version. Also add more category options to improve searching and filter.

3b: Offer a visible calendar for date selection.

3c: Relieve vertical scrolling by reducing search results and lists, and offer a chevron to assist in “horizontal” scrolling.